This is the big week. The week that Facebook actually goes public and their stock actually goes on sale. For $38 bucks you can own a piece of Facebook. Having said that, everyone in our office abstained for the moment being. No real reason other than that we don’t really know anything about the stock market.

The Links:

Twitter is trying to get into the email world by offering a weekly digest called the “Best of Twitter”. It will take the most shared and relevant stories from the folks you follow. Will you be trying it out? (click here)

A growing number of communities will start fining for “texting and walking”. But what if I’m tweeting and walking? (click here)

This is a fascinating (and long) article on how Yahoo killed off Flickr by focusing on the wrong things. For a period, it was the dominate photo-sharing site on the web, but was quickly overtaken by the likes of Facebook and now Instagram. They missed a gigantic opportunity. (click here)

A few studies are coming out showing the ineffectiveness of Facebook ads. Apparently 44% of Facebook users will never click on an ad. My issue with the study: 56% of 800 million is A LOT of people. There are many companies, including some of our clients, that have great success with Facebook ads. (click here)

And we can’t forget the video of the week! If you get easily queasy, you probably shouldn’t watch. This is an intense video of a guy mountain biking down 1,000 stairs on the side of a mountain. Pretty crazy!

It’s nearly Mother’s Day. Have you bought a card? A nice present? Maybe a box of chocolates? Either way, you gotta remember to call not only Mom, but also Grandma, Great-Grandma and any other women in your life who has had an impact on you. Fo real. Do it. Mothers (and women in general) do not get enough credit in our world. Take some time to thank them this weekend and do something nice for them.

The Links:

Mobile websites are going to continue to become more and more important for marketers. It’s like a breath of fresh air when I come across a great mobile site (take a look at www.americanadsm.com, for instance, on your mobile). Here are 8 tips to make yours more user-friendly. Hint: Simplicity is key. (click here)

Apparently Bing (that other search engine…) is going to be unveiling a major redesign that is more heavily focused on social. Will they make a dent? Probably not. But ya never know. If nothing else, keep Bing and Yahoo in mind for SEO purposes. (click here)

Facebook made big news last fall when it rolled out it’s iPad app. The problem is that they haven’t really updated it – and in fact it doesn’t even sport Timeline yet. Fail. Some reports say Facebook (and Zuck) don’t really care, though, about mobile. Big mistake if it’s true. (click here)

There is a new round of video sharing sites vying to become the next Instagram (but for video, of course). Will you be creating an account anytime soon? (click here)

Speaking of Instagram – here are some etiquette rules for you to consider. (click here)

This was a week of reflection, as it was the one-year anniversary of the death of Osama Bin Laden. 2011 really marked the cementing of Twitter, and social media as a whole, as a (mostly) reliable news source. Two of last year’s biggest news stories broke first on social media – with the Japan earthquake/tsunami and then Bin Laden’s death. I distinctly remember watching the tweets flow into feed and being shocked at how quickly the news could spread. What a year it’s been.

The Links:

The Guiness QR glass – claiming to be the world’s first product-activated QR code. This is awesome. (click here)

Pinterest has been running into some intellectual property issues, with people posting things that are obviously not their own creations. Some folks wonder the service will eventually go the way of Napster. Our guess: probably not. (click here and here)

A new service aims to tell folks how much of a… snob they are on social media. What’s your score? For the record, I’m only a 29. And someone in our office who will remain unnamed is well into the 60s. (click here)

Facebook launched the ability to add your status as an organ donor, and also easily register for organ donation. Quite interesting. We’ll be curious to see how/if this has a real effect on saving lives, as Zuckerberg claims it will. (click here)

LinkedIn acquired business presentation sharing site SlideShare this week. Both services will only continue to grow after this announcement. If you aren’t on, get an account with BOTH of these networks and you won’t be disappointed. (click here)

And finally we present to you the crazy video of the week. Lesson: when going to a zoo, never dress your child in black and white stripes. I’m slightly terrified by watching this.

As far as hard social media news goes, there’s not much to tell ya this week. Sorry folks. We do have plenty of other great stuff to share though, so let’s jump right in.

The Links:

Klout is supposedly launching branded pages soon.. er, “squads”.. so you can see the exact people who are the biggest influencers of your brand. The real question, though, is does it all matter? (click here)

Speaking of Klout, what does your score really mean? This interesting piece talks about how a score on a website may not in fact be the best indicator of one’s influence or expertise. (click here)

Putting social media into your traditional advertisements is effective after all. Not to pat our own backs, but here at One Social Media we’ve been telling clients this from the very beginning. The most effective campaigns include both new and traditional media. (click here)

A new dashboard for Pinterest has launched that is supposed to act like a Tweetdeck or Hootsuite for the popular pinning service. Schedule pins, see all your re-pins and likes, etc. Quite interesting. (click here)

LinkedIn launched an iPad app this week – and a very nice looking one at that. It reads much like a newspaper, with people’s updates, stories shared and folks changing positions. Have you downloaded it yet? (click here)

Last, but certainly not least, we bring you “Guy On A Buffalo”. The video is taken from a 70s film called “Buffalo Rider”. With it now being public domain, a folk band made up a song and satirical lyrics to go with it. If you have 9 minutes, please watch all four episodes.

Well, all in all, it was a pretty normal week. If anything, I’m seeing a trend in social media being downsized (as is evidenced by one of our clicks), or being ridiculed in some way or another. It’s quite interesting to be observing. Are we reaching a tipping point where people start to get sick of it? In all honesty, it happens to me sometimes, and I’ve intentionally scaled back a little bit in terms of friends, followers and overall time spent on social media. How about you?

The Links:

A new “social network” application launched in the last couple weeks called Pair. The purpose of the app is for couples (or besties?) to have a little stream of pictures, drawings and messages. Oh, and don’t forget the “thumbkiss”. How this is different than just texting, I don’t really know. Maybe you’ll have to find out for yourself. (click here)

If you aren’t familiar with The Oatmeal, you should be. It’s a site just for silly comics about random life situations. They recently did one about “How to get more Likes on Facebook”. It’s quite hilarious, and also a little vulgar. You’re guaranteed to LOL though. (click here)

CNN did a feature on how and when Facebook became the uncool kid on the block. It’s pretty interesting reading. Did Instagram join that uncool club? (click here)

A slightly humorous but also sad look at how dumb some athletes are on Twitter. They learn the tough lesson that while America has free speech, if you have an employer, there very well may be consequences for the words that come out of your mouth. (click here)

A new report shows that over one-quarter of ALL emails are opened on mobile devices, whether smartphones or tablets. Email marketing is NOT dead, believe it or not, so make sure the emails you are sending are optimized for reading on mobile devices. It’s more important than ever. (click here)

For your fun video of the week we present “Burger Rock” by Jumoke Hill.

Well, the Internet nearly broke this week when Facebook bought Instagram. That’s been covered endlessly by many other outlets, so I won’t worry about it here. <soapbox> A note to those who were vehemently angry about it, however: if you’re so upset, stop using Facebook. That’s the only way the domination of Google and Facebook in the social/digital sphere will stop. If we keep using them all the same, nothing will change. </end soapbox>

The Links:

Credit cards are hopping onto the social train is some quite innovative ways. Financial institutions have traditionally been terrified of jumping into it because of tight industry regulations. American Express, though, is finding ways to give Twitter users special savings using hashtags. Pretty cool. (Click here)

Spotify released an embeddable “Play” button – so you can add music to blogs, websites, etc. This doesn’t seem inherently social, but the implications are huge. Stream music to your blog and perhaps in the future to Facebook, and you can trigger people’s memories and emotions in unique ways. (Click here)

Out of nowhere Google did a total redesign of Google+. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me, but it seems to look nice. Worth noting is a new “Cover Photo” option. Wonder where that idea came from… (Click here)

Grantland.com, a well known sports blog believe it or not, talks about the issue of digital elitism. It notes how belonging in a “secret” club (like Instragram was) gave us a nice big digital ego. Fascinating read, and my favorite article of the week. (Click here)

Another more philosophical piece here, but Slate discusses how the Internet, despite being an unending well of knowledge, can actually polarize us even more, especially in terms of politics. (Click here)

And now to make you giggle. The video below gets better every single time you watch it, and EVERY LINE is a golden nugget. Every. Single. Line.

I am a social media professional. I am also a Christian. Every year I try to do something meaningful for Lent. Maybe it’s some intentional reflection, or giving up something that plays a big role in my life. The hope and intent is that giving something up brings you closer to God. This year, as both social media experiment and spiritual endeavor, I thought it would be interesting to give up Twitter for 40 long days (closer to 46 or so when you include Sundays).

Now, a lot of people give up some form of social media for Lent. It’s also not an integral part of their career, however. I obviously had to establish that I would in fact continue tweeting for clients, just not myself. I realized a few things during my time without Twitter that I’d like to share. Some might be deep, most probably aren’t, but they are reflections nonetheless.

Most people didn’t even notice. I got a couple people saying they missed my tweets, but the majority of people I spoke with were surprised to hear that I took Twitter off – even when I told them a month into my experiment. They obviously weren’t missing much in their world without my tweets.

I did feel less informed. I had to intentionally seek out news versus just let it come to me in a 140-character stream. People would ask “Did you see ____”, and whereas before I could usually answer “Yes” – I had to say “No” quite a few times and feel a little left out.

The above didn’t actually impact what I knew. What I mean by that, is that ultimately I was informed. It just happened to be through other outlets (Facebook, “real” conversations, etc), and it just happened to be approximately 10-30 minutes later than I normally would have been informed.

The things I missed out on were mostly superfluous. Yes, I’m probably a little more knowledgeable of things when I’m on Twitter. I read more random links. But these aren’t things that necessarily make me a better human. Most the time, actually, I’m being distracted from my job and getting something done.

Social networks themselves are neutral mediums. Especially in 2012, we’re seeing people start to discuss the perils of social networking and digital communities. We also see folks ringing their praises as the greatest thing since sliced bread. The platforms themselves, however, are neither. It what’s we do with them that makes them good/bad. Are you seeing your relationships go bad because of social networks? Take some time off. Are you seeing your relationships enhanced because of social networks? Keep doing what you’re doing. To make blanket statements about social media, however, is as foolish as making blanket statements about things like cars or microwaves. You can do good and bad things with both of them, the choice is yours.

Having said that, my relationships were in fact enhanced by taking some time off. I realized that I could communicate with people through personal and more intimate emails (intimate as in revealing more details about life, not the other kind of intimate) or phone calls. My relationships weren’t so much surface level. I spent more time talking with my wife in our back yard than sitting on our couch with iPads. It was refreshing, to say the least.

I’m excited to be back. Because of the fact that I took some time off to reflect on how social media impacts my life, I feel more confident that I can use it smartly versus just doing it because it’s my job and it’s in front of me. I really have cultivated a small community on Twitter and I enjoy the conversation that happens.

All I ask is that you reflect a little and think intentionally about how you use social media in your own life, and the kind of impact (whether subtle or not) it has on your daily interactions with people.

This was a full week with a bevy of digital April Fool’s jokes and the mega-popular app Instragram finally coming to Android phones everywhere. It’s also a good week to think about what kind of message your company sends out over a holiday weekend. Do you feel comfortable posting about Easter? If not, that’s okay, it’s just wise to have that discussion before the time actually comes.

The Links:

Photo-sharing is becoming more and more popular as people’s attention spans for reading go down. So which sharing site is right for you? Our opinion is probably some combo of Tumblr and Instagram. (Click here)

I’ll again highlight my love of craft beer with a blog post from New Belgium Brewing Company. They launched a new beer, and with it one of the more creative marketing campaigns I’ve seen this year. It includes: an infographic, a mobile app and even a Pandora radio station. (Click here – you’ll have to go through an age-gate)

There have been a number of companies jumping on Pinterest lately, but Kotex seems to have embarked on the first true marketing campaign using the new-ish site. Pretty interesting! (Click here)

This is one of the more incredible infographics I’ve seen detailing the rise of Draw Something. It’s the fastest app to ever reach 50 million downloads. (Click here)

Yes, Google+ IS still around, and folks ARE still using it. All kidding aside, Chris Brogan featured an infographic on his blog detailing how people can use it for 10ish minutes a day and find success. (Click here)

Singer Kimberly Cole held a dance audition for a music video, and a nerdy guy showed up with incredible dance moves. It’s clearly a joke, but the dude is a totally legit dancer. It’s quite awesome.

Well, it’s judgement week for Facebook pages everywhere, as they automatically get converted to the new Timeline. We’ve written and talked about this plenty (here, here and here), so I won’t do it more here, except to say that I’ve seen a lot of Cover Photos popping up into my News Feed. I was a little surprised at how many big brands waited until they were forced. No harm done, though. Just being prepared, I suppose!

The Links:

Are you a CEO? Do you know a CEO? In our current economic world, people aren’t generally thrilled with their executives, but a new study shows that those who tweet are held in higher regard than those who don’t. Interesting (click here)

Who are the Pinterest-ers? This article shares some generalized demographic info about the folks using the online bulletin board phenomenon. (click here)

Do you love Instagram? We sure do – in fact you can follow OSM if you’d like (OneSocialMedia)! A new service allows you to make photo books with your Instagram stream as well as your Facebook photos. Pretty cool! (click here)

We all saw this coming, but RIM/Blackberry is making some major changes after another awful quarter. Bottom line: They didn’t adopt social or apps like Apple and Google did. (click here)

If you are a fan of the Will Ferrell classic “Anchorman”, you’ll absolutely love the video below.

There weren’t any huge social announcements this week, but there are definitely some newsworthy items to share. One of those being that allergy season has hit us in full force here in Iowa, which the majority of our office having stuffy noses and pollen-induced headaches. How about where you are?

Anywho, onto the goodies:

Twitter celebrated its 6th birthday this week. Piers Morgan gives a nice ode to the social site, saying how it has transformed America and is a shining example of the entrepreneurial spirit. (click here)

As with any new and booming social site, Pinterest is running into problems with folks poaching usernames of big brands. The company has yet to really do anything about it, but that likely won’t last. (click here)

One Broadway show in New York has started selling “tweet seats” in an effort to combat phones going off in the middle of the show. Interesting way to solve the problem and integrate the 21st Century. (click here)

Have you ever been asked to give your Facebook password to a potential employer? Apparently it’s becoming more common and companies really want to dig in to applicant’s personal lives. The ACLU is not happy. (click here)

A new study shows that folks with more Facebook friends are likelier to be socially aggressive and narcissistic. Seems to make some logical sense, but is also quite a broad generalization. (click here)

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